Another Choice, A Different Story
by HolyRomanGermany
Summary: One choice can change the destiny of many people- and Riku made one such choice unknowingly as a child. If Riku had not stayed behind and saw the Keyhole that day, if he hadn't opened the Door to Darkness, how different would things have been? And not just for him, but for everyone else as well?
1. Invasion

**AN: Well, it looks like I'm back in the Kingdom Hearts fandom, and what better way to celebrate than to write a Kingdom Hearts fanfic? This will be the first that I post. For those of you who were following my Hetalia stories/letters, those are still on hiatus. This is an idea I want to focus on, and hopefully finish, more than I've wanted to do other fanfics before.**

**I've realized that I have a tendency to overthink things to get a story to flow almost as much as Master Xehanort has to get his evil plot to work (I blame KHDDD, 1984, and Doctor Who). This will not be the type of story you were expecting, where Riku get the Keyblade and Sora gives into the darkness. As a matter of fact, that will be made obvious in just this chapter. While the story will follow mostly the same paths as the original, there are so many changes you won't see coming at all. As for what happens prior to the events the first game, I have only changed two events. One is revealed in this chapter, and is the driving force in the story, the other is because I needed to progress the story in a way that makes sense, and will be revealed much later.**

**With all that being said, I hope you enjoy.**

**EDIT: I went and reread this chapter and I found that some things which should have been italicized were somehow undone. If you've already read this chapter, there is no need to do so again. For now, I am working on the second chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or the associated Manga or Novels.**

I. The Invasion

_One time, when I was a little kid, Sora and I decided to check out this cave nestled beneath one of the large trees near a waterfall, the entrance nearly covered with vines. However, during our little "expedition," we didn't find anything of interest, other than a wooden door that neither of us could open. When we left, I considered staying a moment longer, but chose instead to leave the cave._

_As time went on, I forgot about the strange door, not knowing that that single choice was one that decided the way my life would turn…_

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

Tomorrow was the big day. Tomorrow, me, Sora, and Kairi were setting out on our raft to go see other worlds. It was just as well, since those weird black creatures that had appeared a few days ago were becoming more numerous.

The creatures had arrived not long after we had decided to leave the Islands. There was no question that they were dangerous, since they had been seen attacking people, and several people had gone missing too. A few people said that the creatures seemed to be looking for something, though none of us knew what.

Fortunately, they hadn't appeared on the play island. This gave the three of us a chance to relax while working on the raft… although Sora took the "relax" part too seriously. Since the creatures had appeared, Sora and I sparred more often, not wanting to risk getting killed by those things. None of us had been attacked yet, thankfully, but it was always better to be prepared.

Unable to sleep, I stood on the balcony outside of my room, overlooking the sea. Our raft was on that island, all ready to go, and somewhere beyond that sea was another world… and maybe even that guy who had come to the islands when I was a kid. I wondered what happened to him, and what kinds of worlds he was seeing right now.

Something at the play island caught my eye. Were those… black clouds? Not to mention I could feel the wind beginning to pick up… _A storm!_

Without a moment's hesitation, I leaped over the balcony railing. I know it sounds dangerous, but there was plenty of sand down there. I ran in the direction of the docks, hoping to grab a boat and get to the island to check on the raft. I had started untying my boat when I heard Sora's voice. "Riku?"

I glanced back at him. "Sora! Get in!"

Sora nodded and quickly climbed in the boat. "Are you gonna check on the raft too?"

"Yeah." I pushed the boat away from the dock and started rowing. "Something tells me this isn't an ordinary storm," I said with another look at the sky.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked. I jerked my chin in the direction of the clouds… or maybe cloud, as in one, was more accurate. There was a huge, almost spherical cloud hanging above the play island, and while the cloud appeared to be black at first, I now realized that it was red in the center, almost like blood. I shuddered and began rowing faster.

When we reached the play island, Sora jumped out immediately. "Riku! Kairi's boat is here too!"

"What?!" I stopped tying the boat and looked over. Sure enough, Kairi's boat was there as well. But where was _she_? "Sora, go find her! I'll check on the raft!"

"But-" Sora began.

"Now!"

Without further delay, Sora ran off. I finished tying the boat up and jumped out, running to where the raft was… when several of the black creatures began rising from the ground. _No way! They've never come here to the play island!_

One of them lunged at me, and I winced when its claws scraped my arm. I gritted my teeth and ran past them, evading their attacks and cursing myself for not remembering to bring that wooden sword, not that it would do much good in a real fight.

I ran under the bridge with the intent to go through the wooden door to the other side of the island- and stopped short. The way was blocked by even more of the monsters, and they had seen me. I backed away as they started coming at me, but stopped when I glanced back and saw that the ones from before were still in pursuit.

I looked around wildly for a way to escape. _The ocean!_ I seriously doubted any of them would attack me if I was in the water. If this were a normal storm, I wouldn't have considered the ocean as a means of escape, what with the risk of being electrocuted and everything. I sprinted towards the water, hoping to get away from them.

"Gah!"

One of the creatures had jumped at my back, followed by some of its friends, and knocked me to the ground. I struggled to roll onto my back, eyes widening as I saw even more coming at me. _Am I really going to die like this?!_ I lifted my arm in a pathetic attempt to defend myself, squeezed my eyes shut, and braced myself for the pain.

It didn't come.

But I did feel a weight in my hand that wasn't there before. I cracked my eyes open and lowered my arm to see what had happened. There were two things I noticed.

One, all the monsters had vanished in puffs of black-and-purple smoke.

Two, there was a strange weapon in my hand, shaped vaguely like a key.

The "teeth" consisted of a white angel's wing, curved slightly so that the tip pointed away from the blade. The blade was white where the angel's wing was connected, but as it got closer to the hilt it slowly faded to sky blue, with a light blue chain embedded in it. A sapphire hewn in the shape of a diamond connected the blade to the hilt, which vaguely looked like a lighter colored version of the hilt of the key that that guy from ten years ago had.

Keyblade… Vow of Strength…

I wondered what the voice was, but before I could think about it any further, more of the creatures showed up. I couldn't tell in the darkness, but it almost looked as if they had their eyes locked on the… well, the giant key. I didn't know what to call it. Looking at it now, however, it also looked vaguely like a sword. _I wonder…_

Hefting the key into position beside my head, one arm outstretched, I lunged at the monsters. Focusing on one of them, I swung the new weapon a few times. Three hits were all it took for the creature to disappear in a puff of smoke.

I smirked, glad that my weapon had worked, then turned to my enemies. "Come on!" I taunted as I launched myself into battle. I slashed at them, trying to get a few at a time. I did take a few hits, but one by one I managed to take them out.

I panted, nearly spent from the fight, and looked around. I didn't see anymore, but I was bound to run into them on my way to where the raft was. I knew I was strong, and now I had a weapon to fight those things with, but I wouldn't last much longer. Fighting these creatures wasn't like fighting Sora or the others.

"Riku!"

Speaking of Sora, said person came running. "Riku! Kairi's vanished!"

I stared at him in shock. "What do you mean 'vanished'?"

"She was in our Secret Place," he began. "I called out to her, but when I saw her face… She looked like she was sick. And then that wooden door opened and she came flying at me… I tried to catch her, but… she passed right through me!"

"She passed… through you?!" Before I could ask him what he meant, the wind began to pick up, blowing debris around. I shielded my face with my arm, Sora doing the same next to me.

Sora must have lowered his arm first, because I heard him gasp in shock. I lowered my own arm, and immediately did a double-take. The ocean we had been standing to close to, the bridge, the wooden shack and the door that lead to the other side of the island… All that was gone. Almost everything was gone, in fact, aside from a few planks of wood embedded in the sand and a couple palm trees.

"No way…" breathed Sora beside me, who was facing the other direction. I turned to see what he was looking at and took a step back in shock. The thing I was looking at now had to be one of the creatures, but the size of this thing was just huge! "That's… the thing from my dream!" Sora continued.

"You know this thing?!" I asked.

"It was in a dream," he said. "I didn't think it was real!"

I lifted the weapon into position. "I don't suppose your dream told you how to fight this thing?"

"I just kept hitting its hands. That was all I could reach."

I watched as the thing lifted its right hand into the air. "Then that'll have to do," I said. As the giant brought its arm down, I called to Sora "Get to cover!"

Sora nodded, and ran as the thing brought its arm down. I rolled out of the way, getting up to see a pool of darkness surround its hand. More of the smaller creatures came out of the pool of darkness, and I gritted my teeth as I realized that I would have to focus on just the big one, though that would leave me open to attack from the smaller ones. I pushed this to the back of my mind and ran forward, attacking its hand. I wondered why it wouldn't pull its hand away, deciding the giant was either stupid, or so strong it didn't notice the pain. I seriously hoped it was the former.

"Hey! Over here!"

I whipped my head around to see Sora waving his arms wildly, the smaller creatures coming at him. "Sora, are you insane?!"

"You can't focus on them both, right?" said Sora, staring to run to lead them away. "I'll keep them away from you! Just take care of that guy!"

I nodded, though I didn't like it. I turned back to the giant to see it pulling its hand away. I grimaced, realizing I'd lost an opportunity to attack. Sora may have had good intentions, but still.

The giant straightened up, then knelt on the ground, crossing its arms over its chest. I held my weapon at the ready, waiting to see what it would do.

"Riku! It's gonna launch some sort of missiles!" Sora called. He dodged to the side as one of the creatures tried to get at him. "If you can send them back at it," Another dodge, "You'll deal some serious damage!"

I nodded, watching as the creature brought its arms back, send blue-purple projectiles flying from its chest. I watched and waited until the projectiles were close enough before using my weapon to send them flying back at it. I grinned as they hit the creature, mentally thanking Wakka for all the times we sparred together.

The creature, however, unleashed a second salvo of missiles. I deflected most of them, but one flew right past me. I realized with a shock that it was headed towards… "Sora!"

Sora looked up as his name was called, just as the missile struck the ground in front of him, exploding on impact.

"No!" I turned his back on the giant, racing towards where Sora was, then shielded my eyes as a bright light shone from where the explosion had been. I lowered my arm as the light faded, staring in shock at Sora, who now held a similar weapon to the one I was carrying.

Unlike mine Sora's was simple in design, and definitely more key-shaped. The hilt was gold, and the blade and teeth were simply silver, with no added designs, unless you counted that the teeth looked like someone had cut the shape of Sora's crown pendant into it.

Sora stared in shock at the weapon he was now holding, but then quickly turned his attention back to the smaller creatures. I relaxed, realizing he was going to be fine, then raced for the giant again as it brought its arm down once more.

Hoping to finish this quickly, this time I jumped onto its hand, running along its arm and up to its head. I slashed several times before jumping back down to the ground, as Sora finished the last of the smaller creatures.

We braced ourselves for it to attack again, when I felt an odd sensation. It was almost like… like I was being sucked into a vacuum. My fears were confirmed as the giant began to rise into the air, towards the dark sphere that hovered there. Thinking quickly, I grabbed Sora's hand and ran to some of the wooden planks on the ground. Sora caught on and grabbed hold of one, while I grabbed onto another.

Sora glanced over at me worriedly. "Riku, what's happening?!"

"How should I know?!" I snapped back. "I'm just as clueless as- Sora!"

His hands were slipping as the force pulled even harder. I reached out with one hand and grabbed him just as he lost his grip. However, my grip slipped too, and the two of us were sent screaming into the air.

The last I saw of the island's remains was the ground itself breaking up… and I may have imagined it, but I also saw a figure in a brown robe.

Something hit the back of my head, and everything went black.

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

**AN: Just to clarify one thing- instead of Riku opening the Door to Darkness in the Secret Place, the Heartless found it instead. I don't count that change as something from before the first game, since it technically takes place during the game. A little bit before, but still. I apologize if Riku is a little bit OOC. I'm not all that good at writing in first person. I also improvised on the battle with the Darkside. I know the projectiles don't really explode on impact, but I needed some way to give Sora his Keyblade. For those of you who are wondering, my theory is that the Kingdom Key belonged to Sora all along, and Riku's Keyblade would have taken on some other form. I drew a sketch of Riku's Keyblade, which I call Vow of Strength, but I can't upload it for a while. It's a composite of Oblivion, Way to Dawn, and Earthshaker.**

**Please remember to read and review! Reviews motivate me to keep going!**


	2. Stolen Hearts

**AN: Well, here's chapter two. Sorry for the wait, and I'm also sorry to say that the wait will be a normal thing. Sometimes it will be longer, other times shorter. I suffer from really bad chronic writers' block. Happened with at least five scenes in this chapter… However, my blog will have a regular update on my progress. There's a link to it in my profile. Anyway, please enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or the associated manga or novels.**

II. Stolen Hearts

"Riku! Riku, wake up!"

I groaned, my head throbbing in pain. It didn't help matters that Sora was shaking me, rather roughly at that. "Stop it," I protested.

"But… Riku, there's a dog here!"

I opened one eye, seeing Sora's excited face in front of me. I rolled my eyes. "Really, Sora? I'm in pain, and you're going on about a dog?"

"But it- Hey! Wait!" I turned my head to see a yellow-orange dog run around a corner- _Wait, a corner?_- and Sora running after it, before stopping short.

I struggled to my feet, ignoring the pain for the time being, and walked over to him. "Sora? What's wrong?"

He pointed straight ahead. "Riku… We're in another world!"

I looked in the direction he was pointing, and my eyes went wide. We were in a town with all the streets paved with cobblestone. Ahead, down some stairs, I could see two twisted lamp posts, standing a few yards away from each other in two raised beds of earth surrounded by stone- the only actual ground visible. The air was too still, and lacked the familiar ocean scent that would carry over all the islands.

A grin spread over my face. Sora was right. "Sora… We did it!" I laughed slightly. "We made it out of our world! And we didn't need the raft to do it!"

Sora, however, didn't look as excited as I was. "But... what about Kairi?"

"Well," I began, walking out of the alley we were in, "If we made it here, there's no doubt she did too." I glanced back over my shoulder at Sora. He still hadn't moved and was staring at the ground. I rubbed the back of my neck. "Well… How 'bout we split up?"

Sora's head snapped up. "Huh?"

"I'll take a look around, see what I can find out about this world, and you try to find Kairi, alright?"

Sora's expression relaxed slightly. "Okay… but… I don't know my way around this world either."

"Then it's better that we're splitting up, so we can cover more ground," I said. "We'll meet up again here, alright?" Sora nodded. "Okay then. I'll start by heading in that direction, and you can ask around here first."

"Okay." Sora nodded again, then ran towards a boy standing near one of the lamp posts and began talking to him. I smiled, then walked past a nearby shop, figuring Sora would head there during his own investigation. I rounded another corner, heading behind the shop.

"You lost, little boy?"

I turned to see a woman leaning against a wall, smirking and holding a cigarette between her fingers. I grimaced at the smell. "Actually, I'm trying to find my way around right now. And if you've seen a girl with red hair, I'd appreciate if you would tell me."

The woman chuckled. "So you like redheads? I haven't seen any, but maybe _I_ can help you…"

I took a step back, knowing exactly what she meant. "Um, I don't think I need any help."

"Aw, don't be shy-" She cut off screaming as a creature that appeared to be wearing navy blue and red armor appeared and charged at her. Her screams were cut off when the creature plunged its claws into her chest. I looked on in horror as the monster ripped her heart out and devoured it, leaving her body to just fade away.

After the creature had… finished… with the woman, it turned towards me, another monster appearing next to it. I looked from the creatures to a relatively large door just past where the woman had been previously. If I could just make a run for it, I should be able to get past them. Failing that, I still had that key-shaped weapon. "Here goes," I muttered under my breath.

I sprinted to the large double door, weapon in hand. The two monsters racing after me. One of them tried to swipe at me with its claws, but I slashed back at it with my weapon, resulting in a clattering sound when I struck it. Before the other could attack, I had made it to the door.

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

The rest of the town was worse about those monsters than the place Sora and I had first ended up in. However, most of them were those were the ones I had seen on the islands, the plain black ones. I was surprised to see that many of them left munny behind when I defeated them. _At least I don't have to worry about going broke,_ I thought.

I had just gone through the back door of a house with a pair of dogs inside it. I was surprised by the lack of humans in the house, but didn't think too much about it. Their owner was probably not in, or maybe… I stopped myself from thinking of the alternative.

Now, I was in an alley that most likely linked up somewhere else. I hadn't figured out where it may lead yet, but that was part of the reason I was taking a look around. I glanced around. There were a few balconies overhead. _They must be part of that hotel I saw back there._

I barely noticed as someone walked in my direction from the other side of the alley until we brushed past each other. "Pardon me," the man grumbled.

I was about to continue walking when I heard the man call out to me. "Hold on one moment!"

I turned to face him, noticing that he was wearing a black coat with the hood up. _So many shady people in this world,_ I thought to myself.

The man approached and pointed at the key in my hand. "Tell me, how long have you had that?"

I lifted an eyebrow. "What does it matter?"

The man shrugged. "Curiosity."

I didn't trust him, but I didn't see the harm in answering his question. "Not too long. A few hours at the most."

"Fascinating," said the man. "And you don't know what it is, do you?"

"And you do?" I countered.

The man paused a moment before answering. "No, I have never seen one before. But before you leave…" I stiffened as he reached out at picked something off of my shirt. "You had a loose hair."

With that, the man turned and walked away, leaving me standing there in confusion. "This place… is weird," I said aloud.

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

After I had left the alley, I decided that I should go check in with Sora and see how he was doing. I wasn't sure if he had found Kairi yet- as a matter of fact, I highly doubted it- but there was no harm in going back and asking, right? Not to mention, since there were actually people around back there, that meant the creatures must not show up very often in that part of the town.

I half expected the creatures I had been trying to escape earlier to be waiting on the other side of the door. Fortunately for me, they weren't. Although I did wonder why everything was so much quieter than before… _I should probably head back to our meeting place,_ I thought to myself.

I walked around the building, then froze when I heard what sounded like someone falling to the ground. I ran the rest of the way, and looked down the stairs to see Sora lying on the ground, with a man with dark brown hair standing over him. I gritted my teeth. "Hey!"

The man turned to face me, with a look of surprise on his face. "There's… another one?" he said.

I wasn't sure what he meant by "another one," and I didn't care. This guy had a weapon, and Sora was lying on the ground near him with his key-shaped weapon knocked out of his hand. It didn't take a genius to put together the pieces. "I don't know who you are," I growled, "but _no one _messes with my friends and gets away with it!"

I charged at him, weapon in hand. I was surprised for a moment that he wasn't lifting his own weapon to fight, when I felt something hit me in the back of the neck. Hard.

For the second time that day, I blacked out.

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

**AN: Well, I suffered from writers' block more this time than last time. Because of that, this chapter isn't nearly as long as I would have liked it to be, and several scenes didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped… I guess that's just life for ya.**

**The woman that Riku met on his way out of the alley was actually the first person Sora met in Traverse Town in the Kingdom Hearts Manga. I will be including little things like that to the story, especially later on.**

**Also, you may want to remember that man Riku met in the alley. Although he won't be mentioned again for a very long time. He won't even be mentioned in my blog until he shows up again.**

**Please remember to R&R. Reviews are my motivation~**


	3. Keyblades and Heartless

**AN: So… much… homework… I'm sorry this took so long! My reasons are a combination of four things- lots of homework, procrastination, writers' block, and the 358/2 days movie. It looks so amazing! Those eyes… Those animations… So beautiful! On another note, does anybody have tips for getting over writers' block? Not the lack of motivation, but when you know what you want to happen but just can't get it down on paper without sounding bad…**

**X-blade025: **Yes, I'll be rewriting those too. After that, I may even do a Days side story.Sorry I took so long to upload this chapter!

**Life is no Fairytale: **Sorry you find it weird! I guess that's another thing that's different from the original… We'll just say it's because Sora has Ven's heart, okay?

**Disclaimer: If I owned Kingdom Hearts, the plot would be more confusing than it already is. Be glad that I don't own it.**

III. Keyblades and Heartless

For the second time in twenty-four hours, I woke up with a massive headache. I groaned as I sat up, clutching my head as I did so. "What hit me?" I wondered aloud.

"That would be me."

I turned my head to see who had spoken. The girl who stood in front of me had black hair, held back by a headband made from… was that metal? She wore a yellow scarf and a green tube top, held up by two blue belts, but when I saw how much skin she was showing I forced my eyes back to her face.

"Sorry," I said. "But I'm pretty sure I heard you say _you_ knocked me out."

She smirked, her brown eyes glinting. "Yeah, you heard right."

I shook my head. "No, I highly doubt that." I countered her smirk with one of my own. "There's no way some skinny girl like you could have beaten me."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, we weren't in a fight, now, were we?" Her smirk turned into a full grin. "I just snuck up behind you and knocked you out."

I lifted an eyebrow, getting to my feet and folding my arms across my chest. "So you're a coward? You couldn't face me in a real fight?"

"I most certainly could. You just so happened to have your back turned."

I wanted to wipe that smirk off her face. "I was going after that guy who attacked my friend!"

"'That guy' just so happens to be in the room." The girl and I both turned to see who had spoken. My eyes widened as I recognized the man I had seen earlier.

"You!" I curled my hands into fists and widened my stance, ready to fight. The man held his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Easy. We're not looking for a fight," he said.

I glared at him. "Then why'd you and your friend here knock out me and- Sora!" I gasped as I saw him lying on a bed on the other side of the room.

The man looked over at him. "Actually, he beat me, but he passed out from exhaustion." He glanced back at me. "Of course, I went easy on him. If he passed out from that, there's no way he's up for what's in store."

At that moment, Sora shifted slightly on the bed, groaning. "Sora!"

The girl leaned over in front of him. "Come on, lazy bum. Wake up."

Sora slowly opened his eyes, looking only slightly surprised to see the black haired girl in front of him. "You okay?" she asked.

Sora nodded slowly. "I guess."

The girl went glanced at me before continuing. "Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblades, but it's your heart they really want because you wield a Keyblade."

A Keyblade. So that's what it was called. Now that I thought about it, it made total sense. Of course that's what you'd call a sword shaped like a giant key.

Sora straightened up slightly, appearing not to have heard a word she said. "I'm so glad you're okay, Kairi."

_What?! He thinks she's Kairi? They look nothing alike!_

The girl scrunched up her face in confusion. "Kairi? Who're you talking about? I'm the great ninja Yuffie!" Sora blinked several times, his eyes widening in surprise. Glanced back at the man. "I think you might have overdone it, Squall."

The man glared at her. "That's 'Leon.'"

Yuffie and Leon. I now had names for these two. "So, those swords are Keyblades, right?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Yeah," said Yuffie, nodding to where the two aforementioned weapons were propped against the wall. "We had to get them away from you two to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they were tracking you."

Leon nodded. "It was the only way to conceal your hearts from them, but it won't work for long." He glanced back at Sora. "I'll admit, I was surprised to see there were two of you. But it's hard to believe _you_ were one of the people chosen." He picked up the two Keyblades, which vanished suddenly. I was shocked to see it return to my hand in a swirl of blue-white light. Leon shrugged. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

Sora took that moment as an opportunity to voice my own thoughts. "Why don't you start making sense? What's going on here?!"

Leon leaned against the wall. "You may want to pull up a seat. This explanation could take a while."

I sat down at the table in the middle of the room, while Yuffie plopped down next to Sora on the edge of the bed. I lifted an eyebrow at Leon. "Well?"

"By now," Leon began, "You probably know that there's lots of other worlds out there besides this one, but they've been kept secret since they've never been connected. Until recently, when the Heartless attacked."

"The Heartless?" Sora asked.

"The ones who attacked you," explained Yuffie. "Remember?"

"Kinda hard not to," I said, glaring at her. She just stuck her tongue out at me. Sora glanced between the two of us with a confused look on his face.

"Anyway," said Leon, who was sounding very annoyed. "The Heartless are those without hearts. The darkness in people's hearts? That's what attracts them, and there is darkness inside every heart."

"Hey," Yuffie interjected. "Have you guys ever heard of someone called Ansem?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"A lot, actually," she said. "Ansem was studying the Heartless. Apparently, he wrote what he found in a detailed report."

"And, uh, do you guys have this report?" asked Sora.

"No," said Leon. "Its pages were scattered to many worlds. But if we could find it, we could learn more about the Heartless, and maybe even the Keyblade."

Sora and I glanced at each other. "So, these are the keys?" I asked. Well, it was more a statement than a question.

Yuffie nodded. "Exactly."

"The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade," added Leon. "That's why they'll keep on coming after you, no matter what."

"Then we'll just have to fight them off," I said.

Sora, however, wasn't so sure. "But- I didn't ask for any of this!"

I blinked in surprise. Sora had to have met someone with a Keyblade too, right? Or was I mistaken that it was because of the man I had met that I now had my own?

"Well," said Yuffie. "The Keyblade- or Keyblades, I guess," she added with a glance at me, "choose their masters, and they chose the two of you."

Leon shrugged callously. "So, tough luck."

"Hold on," I said. "There's still one thing I don't get. We were on our island one moment, and the next we ended up here in... Where are we?"

"Traverse Town," said Sora. I turned to him in surprise. He shrugged. "I met a guy in a shop and he told me."

I nodded. "Right. My question is, what does that mean for our island? And our friends who are still there?"

Leon hesitated, then closed his eyes and hung his head slightly. "You know what? I really don't know."

~~Another Choice-A Different Story~~

**AN: I FINALLY GOT THIS CHAPTER FINISHED! Originally, it was going to be twice as long, but I figured that since it was taking so long, I'd split it in half. Seriously, if you want me to update faster, you'll have to review. Reviews are my motivation.**

**I've also begun uploading this story onto Deviantart. I've actually gotten better reception there than here, for some reason… **

**Please R&R! I only have two reviews so far!**

**Thanks to:**

Life is no Fairytale

X-blade025


	4. Author's Note

**AN: **Sorry about the super long wait, everyone. However, my reasons this time are valid, though the waiting may take even longer. I got a new laptop, though that means I no longer have the partially completed copy of Chapter 4. I'm going to try and transfer my old files to this laptop, but so far I haven't gotten around to it.

On top of that, I have a couple of other projects I intend to work on. I have been asked to write a Doctor Who/Kingdom Hearts crossover, though I am taking several liberties with the challenge to integrate the two more fully than they originally said. I am also writing a steampunk Disney adventure story staring Mickey Mouse, and I have the plot mostly figured out. I am also thinking of continuing "Letters in Blood Red Ink," since I'm back on the computer and summer has begun again.

Once again, I apologize for the wait, and I hope to complete a chapter for one of my projects in the near future.

-HRG


End file.
